Impromptu Baking

I had an impromptu baking day today. I decided at around 8 AM that since we had no plans, I'd bake. I started with a double batch of pancakes and froze what we didn't eat for breakfast. I made silver dollar pancakes and the girls were absolutely THRILLED with those. It's the simple things in life.

I moved on to what I call Potato Bread, but what Megan calls Real Lovin' Bread. Megan and I went to college together and I highly recommend her blog if you're a foodie. She's amazing -- check out these cookies and don't miss the Turkish Delight!

The bread is the best I've made yet even though I had to use plain old bleached all-purpose flour because it was all I had in the house (bleck, gag, ick, etc). I felt the dough was really sticky after the first rising even though it seemed fine after the initial mixing. I'll try a tad more flour next time even though I don't notice anything odd in the end result. My rising times were also longer, but it's cold out. I had two loaves and was planning to freeze them. I now have one. It's that good. If you are new to bread making, use this recipe first! It's beyond easy.


In between risings, I whipped up Weetabix Muffins. My friend, Lara, made these for a Christmas potluck and YUM! Lara is Australian and Weetabix are from the U.K. so it took about 40 times of her saying "Weetabix" before I realized I had no clue what she was talking about. Trader Joe's sells the cereal, but I happened to find it at Von's by accident. You'll have to trust me until you taste them -- these are AWESOME muffins! The recipe is originally from the side of the cereal box. I doubled all the ingredients and ended up with 24 normal sized muffins and 24 mini muffins.


Weetabix Muffins
Makes 12 Muffins
1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
5 Organic Weetabix Biscuits, crushed
1/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
4 Tbsp. honey
Brown Sugar for topping (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or use paper baking cups.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in the Organic Weetabix and sugar.
3. Mix the yogurt and milk together in a bowl and beat in the egg, melted butter and honey.(I melted the butter, added the honey, then the egg, then the yogurt and milk. Ooops.)
4. Mix wet ingredients into dry, mixing only until just combined.
5. Scoop batter into muffin cups an sprinkle tops with brown sugar.
6. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the muffins have risen and are golden brown.
7. Turn out onto a rack to cool or serve warm. (I froze mine!)